ACTORS LUKE KIMBALL , THOMAS MITCHELL & COMPANY
TORONTO CAST OF HARRY POTTER & THE CURSED CHILD
myself included , you miss things and there are things that go wrong . If something happens , the worst thing you can do is try to solve it because then you ’ ll keep making mistakes going forward . Like in Dear Evan Hanson or Come from Away , if there ’ s a problem , you ’ d say , ‘ Hey deck electrician , this didn ’ t work .’ That still happens in Potter , but you ’ re not going to fix it immediately . We have spares of high-value props that can go on stage pretty immediately if it doesn ’ t work . If it ’ s something that ’ s a recurring thing , you can just say , ‘ That one didn ’ t work , put the spare on next time it goes on stage .’ That ’ s an easy fix , as opposed to , ‘ It didn ’ t work , so figure out why it didn ’ t work .’ There ’ s no time for that .”
22 | Fall 2022
For load-in- , setup , and programming , Tusing was in Toronto for 70 days , and he was joined by a number of U . S . -based colleagues who also worked on the New York and / or San Francisco productions , including the international associate lighting designer , Nick Solyom .
“ Before getting into the theatre , I ’ ll do a patch and send that off to the electrician so they can have that during load-in to ring things out . I ’ m here through the load-in process and at some point will start turning things on . I make sure every parameter of every fixture works in the way I expect it to …. We don ’ t have time in the tech process to realize , say , the frost doesn ’ t work in this light — we need it to work from the start ,” says Tusing .
Tusing explains that he never begins with an empty show file . So , in the case of the Toronto production , his starting point was the San Francisco show file .
“ There were some adjustments to make for that , especially when it comes to the house lighting and dealing with the architecture in the venue ; San Francisco and Toronto are very different theatres . Then we ’ ll focus the show . We had the San Francisco moving light documentation and that ’ s what we based all of the focuses off of ,” Tusing says , adding that two or three days are allotted to moving light focus . “ In this case , Nick Solyom was here because Neil was in Tokyo . One of the most valuable things we do is give Nick or Neil a wireless headset , which is something I ’ ve never done until Potter . This is so they can go up on stage and say , ‘ No , adjust that shutter .’ I ’ ll also be on a headset with them and it ’ s like , ‘ Okay , shutter in , shutter in , shutter in …’ That way we can get that perfect line of light . We are looking for perfection and that helps a lot .”
In total , the tech process in Toronto and other cities lasted about three-and-a-half weeks . Even with that much time , Tusing says they must stick to a strict schedule to ensure they ’ re done by the first invite dress rehearsal and previews .
“ In this case , we had the U . S . production stage manager , Rolt Smith , here through tech , which was great . He has been with the show since day one . So , having his knowledge and being able to have him and the local production stage manager , Chris Porter , in the same room and be right next to each other is amazing ,” adds Tusing .
A critical part of the tech process is making sure the show is programmed in a manner that the local crew can effectively take over .
“ We make sure that things are easily findable , and we use a couple different systems , which are unique on Potter , to control lights . We can say there ’ s three different sources of things where if you ’ re trying to troubleshoot something , you ’ re like , ‘ Oh , there was a problem with this thing last night ; great , let ’ s go fix it .’ They need to be able to quickly and easily find that one thing and be able to fix it ,” Tusing explains . “ Something else that ’ s really important during the load-in process is to make sure everything ’ s symmetrical . Especially with the way Neil works in tech , with cueing , everything we do is symmetrical . If someone takes a step downstage , the last thing you want to do is grab the light on stage left and pan downstage , grab the light at stage right and pan it downstage — you want to be able to grab both and do the same thing , and that includes copying data from one side of the stage to the other . So , symmetry is also very